Rumer Cross is cursed. Scraping by working for a dingy London detective agency, she lives in the shadow of her mother, a violent criminal dubbed the ‘Witch Assassin’ whose bloodthirsty rampage terrorised London for over a decade. Raised by foster families who never understood her and terrified she could one day turn into her mother, Rumer has become detached and self-reliant. But when she’s targeted by a vicious mobster who believes she’s hiding an occult relic, she’s drawn into the very world she’s been fighting to avoid. Hunted by assassins and haunted by her mother’s dark legacy, Rumer must also confront a terrible truth: that she’s cursed, because no matter what she does, everybody she’s ever grown close to has died screaming. Always a pleasure to feature some independent fiction here at The Eloquent Page. Last week, we had the fantastical second book in The Breed Chronicles: Tooth and Claw by K T Davies. This week, things take a significantly more sinister turn. Prepare yourselves for Josh Winning’s latest, Vicious Rumer, an urban thriller with a pitch-black heart. At first glance, Rumer comes across as a brittle, acerbic type. She has had a tough upbringing, and this has left all...